Principal's Message

Principal's Message

G. C. Foster College of Physical Education and Sport “The Home of World Class Coaches”

It gives me immense pleasure to welcome our new students and returning members of the G.C. Foster College community for the academic year. We are excited about the college’s prospects for the upcoming year.Education is not merely an acquirement of facts but also of values which help us improve the different facets of mankind. It ensures that we leave the world a better place than we found it. I would exhort students to be always modest, humble and disciplined while being ready to take on the rigors of day to day life. I laud the relentless efforts of our lecturers for giving their best in bringing out the best in each student.The aim of our institution is to educate the student to think and not what to think. In the words of Dalai Lama, “when educating the minds of our youths, we must not forget to educate their hearts”.As new students at G.C. foster College, you are going to have questions. Our mission and vision for the institution is designed around you, helping to uncover the answers to the questions you have, and providing you with information about campus resources, programmes and services. We live in an era where Facebook, Instagram, snapchat, twitter, WhatsApp can help in increasing knowledge, solving problems and overall assist in the communication process.‘Students’ you have entered an institution that has a reputation of producing not only excellent coaches, but excellent P.E. Teachers, Massage Therapist, Fitness Trainers and world class athletes.Students you are privilege to join us at a time when higher education is undergoing rapid and dramatic transformation. In order for us to maintain the great reputation of this noble institution, we have basic rules that governs this College.

Proper grooming

The use of civilized language

We do not tolerate academic dishonesty, fighting, stealing, sexual harassment,

I implore all students to read the Handbook that governs the rules of the institution.The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once said that, “The art of progress is to preserve order, amid change, and to preserve change amid order”. That will be your task, to preserve what G.C. Foster has been and has stood for since 1980.It is my great honour to welcome you all, hoping that you will make a positive contribution to this honorable institution, G.C. Foster College of Physical Education and Sport.

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G.C. Foster College embarked on an initiative to offer support to the community during this time of crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 13, 2020, care packages were distributed to members of the surrounding community who have exhibited a need and would have benefitted from the College’s support over the years. The G.C. Foster College continues to shine as a beacon of light, not only through physical education and sport, but through supporting the community.

It’s clear that the athletics family wants to be ready to speed as soon as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is brought under control. That’s what the promise of late-season meets, locally and internationally, convey to me. The same goes for the possible staging of national championships in August.

As suggested by Sprintec Track Club founder and head coach Maurice Wilson a few weeks ago, it seems that the sport can ill afford to be absent when the coast is clear.

“I don’t think we have the luxury in track and field not to be connecting with the public for almost one year,” Wilson said. “The sport has been losing marketability over a period of time and I believe, in a year where persons are, if I should use the word, sports thirsty, it is an opportune time for us to, later on in the year, have some very competitive matchups, having persons who don’t normally race each other racing each other to generate back the public interest.”

These signals give all the stakeholders some hope. While they wait for a light at the end of this tunnel and daily reports of tragedy and recovery, some plough through cassette tapes and videodiscs and YouTube to get a taste of their favourite sport.

Others have given up and amuse themselves with mathematical brain puzzles.

The only real option is patience. Though there has been steady anti-COVID-19 action in Jamaica and elsewhere, the light at the end of the tunnel could be a way off. Schools have yet to complete the Easter term. The longer they must stay closed, the more it becomes likely that the school year will end many weeks past the usual date early in July.

We’ve already seen the shift of the 2020 Olympic Games into 2021 and it would be great if the world became healthy enough for sport to kick back into gear before the New Year. The reality is that, though we’d all love to have special compact version of the Diamond League and the completion of the English Premier League, any resumption date set now is provisional.

Every energy has to be devoted to keeping everyone healthy.

In the meantime, sport can be used as a powerful beacon of hope. Last weekend, World Athletics posted 10 inspiring stories on its website. One of them detailed the patience and determination of Merlene Ottey to become an individual outdoor World Champion. She made it in 1993 at the World Championship in Stuttgart, Germany. Even there, she faced adversity. She lost the 100m to Olympic champion Gail Devers by a smidgen as both got the same time – 10.82 seconds. Then, she barely held off another Olympic gold medallist, Gwen Torrence, to take the 200m.

She was 33 then, and many thought she should have already put her spikes away. Instead, she persevered and became Jamaica’s first World Champion at 200m, male or female.

Jamaicans everywhere will have to call on Ottey’s determination and discipline to drive this health challenge away. She didn’t give up and neither should we.

This interlude without sport is many things. It’s time to reflect. It’s time to look ahead, to cultivate new habits and to refresh old methods.

It’s definitely not time to give up.

Hubert Lawrence has scrutinised local and international track and field athletics since 1980.

G.C. Foster College is now accepting applications for the Free ICT Technical Support Programme for January 2020. This programme is offered jointly by the Vocational Training Development Institute (VTDI) and NCTVET. Participants will be trained and certified to work in the growing BPO Sector.